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Editorial: Health insurance signup is growing

The Obama administration reported Thursday that more than 8 million Americans have successfully signed up for health insurance since Oct. 1 under the Affordable Care Act. Nearly half of those enrollees have done so since March 1.

The recent enrollment surge has many factors.

* The enrollment pace doubled in the 36 states that did not set up their own marketplace and instead used the federal marketplace.

* The 14 states and the District of Columbia that set up their own marketplaces have reportedly signed up one-third of citizens eligible to purchase marketplace insurance coverage.

* About 1.2 million or 31 percent of the enrollees since March 1 were young adults, ages 18 to 34. During the past two months, the coveted young population has more than doubled its enrollment pace.

* The administration also reported that an additional 4.8 million individuals gained coverage through the Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid, which was expanded under the ACA.

While the Web sites for the federal marketplace and a number of states — including Minnesota — got off to a rough start when they opened, the performance of most of these Websites have improved in recent months.

Public opinion also appears to slowly be warming to the Affordable Care Act. One recent poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 58 percent of those surveyed want Congress “to improve the law,” while 35 percent still want it repealed.

While Republicans continue to campaign against the law and Democrats remain wary of the law going into the 2014 election, voters do not appear to be eager for this law to be repealed.

The growing enrollment of Americans signing up for this health insurance will likely make it harder with each passing month for opponents to put the health insurance genie back into the bottle.